BackgroundThe recent expansion of higher education institutions in Ethiopia provides an opportunity for many citizens who did not previously have access to higher or university level education. This opportunity, however, comes with its own challenges, such as ensuring that minimum standards are set and maintaining quality where pedagogical concerns are compromised. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of teaching without pedagogical training, in St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsAn institutional-based qualitative phenomenological study was conducted through an in-depth interview, using purposive sampling techniques. Participants were instructors and students selected from SPHMMC who had participated in the teaching or learning process or at least 24 months. Owing to data saturation, only 16 instructors and seven students were interviewed, using open-ended and semi-structured questions. Tape recorders and field notes were used. Based on thematic aggregation, the content of the responses was analyzed.ResultsOnly one of the 16 instructors had received pedagogical training for more than one year. Twelve instructors had received 2 days to 2 weeks of training, and the rest were using a personal method of teaching. During the recruitment procedure, only one instructor had been asked to verify their pedagogical background. However, all respondents confirmed that pedagogical training is very important to facilitate the teaching-learning process. In this study, most of the instructors practiced their personal teaching methods, which resulted in no common delivery system of teaching content, which can be huge, no lesson plan, no clear objectives to courses, poor time management, different instructors having overlapping course content, no table of specifications, and no proper evaluation mechanisms for either the students’ or the teachers’ performance. On the students’ side, because of the vast and unplanned course content and poor time management, their participation in the learning process was insufficient, which could affect their learning.ConclusionBecause of the gap in pedagogical training, college teachers use personal teaching methods, and this negatively affects the standardization of delivery methods. To improve this drawback, proper pedagogical training should be provided for all teachers. This would help them to deliver quality education and to produce competent graduates from the institute to supply the workforce.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused stress on the health care system of many countries worldwide. To accommodate the growing number of critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation, hospitals expanded and tried to meet overwhelming demands. Despite this, outcomes of patients after mechanical ventilation were devastating, with high mortality rates. Therefore, this study investigated the survival status and predictors of mortality among mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was applied on the patient charts of 496 critically ill and mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients at intensive care units of Addis Ababa COVID-19 Care Centers from September 2020 to October 2021. Data were collected using a data extraction checklist and entered into Epi data manager. Then, data were transferred to STATA V-14 for cleaning and analysis. The cox-proportional hazard regression model was used for analysis. Covariates with p-value ≤0.20 in the bivariate analysis were fitted to multivariate analysis after the model fitness test. Finally, statistical significance was decided at p-value <0.05, and hazard ratios were used to determine the strength of associations. Results: Of the 496 patients, 63.3% had died. The incidence rate of mortality was 56.7 (95% CI: 50.80, 63.37) per 1,000 person-days of observation, with 5534 person-day observations recorded. Advanced age (>60 years old) (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR)=1.86; 95% CI: 1.09, 3.15) and being invasively ventilated (AHR=2.02; 95% CI: 1.25, 3.26) were associated with increased risk of mortality. Furthermore, presence of diabetes (AHR=1.50; 95% CI: 1.09, 2.08), shock (AHR=1.99; 95% CI: 1.12, 3.52), and delirium (AHR=1.60; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.44) were significantly associated with increased mortality. Conclusions: Clear directions are needed in the recommendation of non-invasive versus invasive ventilation, especially among elderly patients. The controversy of when to intubate (early versus late) needs to be clarified as well. Early detection and prompt management of shock is paramount.

Background Acute pain is a predominant problem in the prehospital setting. Acute pain management in the prehospital setting requires precise and competent skills in practice—failure to assess and relieve pain results in multisystem effects that lead to poor patient prognosis. Emergency care providers should have adequate knowledge and develop good pain management practices. Limited information is documented on knowledge, attitude and practices about acute pain management among emergency care providers. This study aimed to assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of acute pain management in the prehospital setting and associated factors among emergency care providers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods Quantitative cross-sectional study design was conducted among emergency care providers working in a prehospital setting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. One hundred forty-one participants were included in the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and practice observation checklist, then entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 25 for further analysis using a logistic regression model. Results Most participants had good knowledge, with 81 (63.8%) scoring above the mean value (64%). The mean percentage for pain management practice was 36%. Availability of pain medications and assessment for pain were factors significantly associated with pain management practice with an adjusted odds ratio of 7.98, 95% CI: 1.32–48.18 and 42.87, 95% CI: 12.7-144.7, respectively. Conclusion The results show that the knowledge regarding acute pain management is good, but the attitude and practice of emergency care providers are unfavourable and poor. Further research is indicated to assess the possible barriers and facilitators of acute pain management in the prehospital setting.